The Story of Our Exile
by The Reference Man
Summary: No, the hyenas didn't always live in the Elephant Graveyard. There was a time when they lived in peace along with the lions in the Pride Lands and respected the circle of life. That was until tension started between the two species and a hyena rebellion arose under the leadership of the hyena matriarch who is known to Pride Lands history as Bloody Mary.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

 **Hello everybody, I am super excited to say that I'm finally here to give you all the long overdue prologue chapter for the Story of Our Exile, showing why the hyenas were banished in my fanfiction Lion King story universe and to show the character of Bloody Mary that I've talked so much about in my other Lion King fanfics. Now, before you read ahead I must warn you there are SPOILERS down below about what happens in the Scarred Pride since this prologue takes place in the Pride Lands sometime after the events of The Scarred Pride, so if you don't want spoilers for that story, please read the Scarred Pride first and come back here later, but for any who are ready to read, enjoy the prologue chapter.**

* * *

Deep in the heart of Tanzania, Africa, there was land known as the Pride Lands. The lands were ruled by a large pride of lions that had been there for nearly eight generations. The black blanket of nighttime was draped over the land, but the soft glow of twilight soon came with the sun just rising from below the horizon. Ever so slowly, morning light began pulling back the remaining darkness. The light soon washed over two lions, one male, one female, who were sleeping in the shade of a tree somewhere in the middle of the savannah.

Sensing the morning light on her face, the lioness' blue eyes, which were violet during her cubhood, cracked open before immediately snapping shut again from the blinding light. The lioness cursed before working on getting her eyes use to the light until she could fully open them again. When she did, she yawned and smacked her lips together before standing up to stretch out her tired limbs. The lioness looked around, confused at first that she was laying down in the savannah before remembering last night. She and her mate had come out to do some stargazing and had lost track of time and fell asleep.

The lioness took a deep breath before looking towards her still asleep mate, Kopa. He was a large stocky yellow lion with bite marks and scars all over his body, face, legs, belly, and neck, which were hidden under his brown mane, all of which he had gotten as a cub from the lioness' own mother, Zira. Zira was an enemy of Kopa's father, Simba, because many years ago he came back from exile and defeated his evil uncle, a lion named Taka, but was better known Scar. So, out of revenge, Zira attacked Kopa, who was nearly a year old and nearly killed him and threw him in the river, which caused a long war between her and her pride known as the Outlanders against the Pride Landers. That war was however stopped by Kopa's sister, Kiara, who was born not long after, and the lioness' younger brother Kovu, and Zira fell in a raging river and supposedly drowned to death.

Kopa then came back to the Pride Lands over a year later after having been separated from his friend by a new enemy that the lioness along with the rest of the royal family had also recently encountered known as the Scarred Pride. A pride of scarred lions and hyenas lead by none other than Simba's uncle, Scar, who had survived being mauled by his hyenas after they left him to die as the fire during the battle of Pride Rock was starting to block off their means of escape. Scar had somehow survived and fled the Pride Lands, physically and mentally broken. However, after meeting a young teenage rogue, he began to form a new pride with the insane goal of world domination. The lioness didn't like to think about the Scarred Pride since they had lost some members during the war with them, two of them being the mother and younger brother of the Pride Lands' current queen, Nala, who nearly died from by getting her throat slit by that same teenage rogue that Scar had met when he first formed the Scarred Pride.

The lioness shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. She put a smile on her face and began to shake her mate awake.

"Kopa, wake up!" the lioness ordered.

Kopa's eyes, the left one being milky white, shot open, startled by the sudden awakening.

"Ah! Vitani, where are we?" he asked frantically as she straightened himself up and looked around.

"We fell asleep while stargazing." Vitani said bluntly with a smile of amusement on her face.

Kopa cupped his face in one paw, rubbing his eyes.

"Ugh. I don't even remember falling asleep out here." Kopa groaned.

"At least it didn't rain." Vitani said.

"Well, it's still the dry season. So, the chances of being rained on if you fall asleep in the savannah are very unlikely." Kopa said.

"Only until next month when the short rainy season starts." Vitani pointed out. "Now come on, let's go home. Everyone, especially Siri is probably worried about us."

"Yeah, it's milk time." Kopa said.

"Than get your lazy butt up already." Vitani joked.

Kopa got up and stretched his limbs out before he and Vitani headed for home. When they got there, the hunting party lead by Nala and Kiara were just leaving. Kiara's daughter and youngest child, Talia, a lioness with light auburn/brown fur, freckled muzzle, peach colored stripe like Zira's, and one emerald green and reddish-brown eye was with them. She was still a little too young to hunt, but she was brought along to watch and observe how a hunting party worked together. The party offered Vitani a position in, but she declined, saying she needed to worry about Siri right now; she also added that she might go on a solo hunt later.

As the hunting part continued off, Kiara informed Vitani and Kopa that Siri was with Dalia and the sunning rocks with some of the other pride members. The two thanked them and went searching for Dalia and Siri. More than half of the pride was at the sunning rock, which would make it difficult to find who someone was looking for, but it was pretty easy to spot one hyena in the middle of over twenty lionesses. Near the back of the sunning lionesses, Kopa and Vitani spotted a grey plump hyena with a large red nose, a heart shaped spot on her right shoulder, and hyena's mane that was all fuzzy and frizzy, which turned into hair on her head that had three separate lock-like bangs that hung over her closed star blue eyes. She was laying on her side while next to her a cub with dark peach colored fur and brown mane tuft was pulling at a fold of skin on her thick neck.

The hyena smiled as the cub did so, not the slightest bit bothered by it's childish mischief.

"Good old Dalia." Siri said, smiling at the hyena with his son.

When Zira threw Kopa in the river after she thought she killed him, he drifted for a few days, drifting in and out of consciousness. Dalia, who lucky for a currently unconscious Kopa, was a friendly hyena and pulled him out of the river and treated his wounds the best she could. When Kopa woke up, he couldn't remember a thing about his life beyond the days of floating in the river or even his name, leaving his past a mysterious blur. So, at the time, she named him Siri since it meant mystery. Kopa hated it at first since he thought it sounded girly, but it grew on him even though he never admitted it to Dalia.

Kopa however did get his memory back during the fight with Zira, who had survived the raging river she fell into at the end of the Pride Lander-Outlander War only to be found by Scarred Pride recruiters lead by a white lion named Wraith. Wraith was the teenage rogue Scar met when he first formed the Scarred Pride and was the Scarred Pride's second-in-command before he killed Scar when he was about to execute Kiara as a way to punish Simba for all the trouble, he and the Pride Lands had caused the Scarred Pride. When the Pride Landers came back to the Pride Lands and Kopa and Vitani eventually married after getting over some relation problems had a son who they named Siri to honor everything Dalia had done for Kopa. Dalia had also basically been made part of the pride and royal family, which a hyena could only dream of. To this day still, when Dalia walked around, some pride member would randomly give the elderly hyena a friendly nuzzle and thank her for saving Kopa from certain death and for raising him to be the lion he was today.

Vitani even developed a mother-daughter relationship with Dalia, that neither were ever able to with their own mothers. Kopa and Vitani walked towards the hyena and cub. Siri, sensing his parents, looked towards them with eyes that were violet like his mother's when she was still a cub. A smile spread across the nearly three-month-old cub's freckled muzzle and began to run towards his parents.

"Hay their Big Ears the second." Kopa greeted his son, referencing Siri's abnormally large ears he had like his mother.

Vitani shouldered Kopa's ribs, getting the reference.

"My ears are not that big." Vitani argued, denying the truth.

"Hay now you two. No fighting in front of our little Siri here. It's going to be a bad influence on him." Dalia said, her eyes still closed.

"Then tell Kopa to admit my ears are not big." Vitani said.

Dalia yawned before speaking.

"Sorry honey, but your ears do seem to be bigger than everyone else's to me." Dalia said.

"You're taking his side?" Vitani said. shocked.

The elderly hyena smiled and nodded.

"Yep. They're even bigger than an elephant's ears, I'd say." Dalia teased as she yawned again.

That caused Kopa to laugh hysterically.

"Yeah Vitani." Kopa began to join in. "I even bet all the elephant herds gather around to make fun of how big your ears are."

While Kopa was laughing and Dalia trying to hold back her chuckling, Vitani just scoffed in defeat, she'd get them back for this in someway later after she took care of Siri. She gently grabbed the cub by his scruff and jumped on the rock to lay as he sucked for milk. Kopa joined them on the rock and ran a paw through Dalia's fuzzy hair.

"He say anything while we were out last night?" Kopa asked.

Dalia shook her head. Siri was good at walking and running now, but the cub had yet to utter a single word yet. Cubs began to talk at three months old, and that was exactly two weeks away for Siri, but there was the chance Siri could begin talking early. The three sat there in boring silence, except for the sound of Siri's sucking.

"So, any plans today." Dalia asked as she rolled onto her back and yawned.

"I don't know. It's really hot out because of the dry season and there's no swimming aloud." Kopa said.

"We could take our ladha kidogo kutibu out for a stroll in the savannah." Dalia said, looking towards Siri.

"Sure, it gives us something to do other than just lazing around while I'm not giving Siri his milk. I could even go on that solo hunt I mentioned for us." Vitani agreed.

"Oh, could we come?" a voice asked from behind them.

The three looked to see Nuka, Kovu and Vitani's older brother standing behind them, who had supposedly died during the Pride Lander-Outlander War when some logs fell on him during a failed ambush of Simba that Kovu was at first blamed for. A short time after Kopa came to the Pride Lands as Siri, Kovu along with his son Taka II and Bluu, a lioness cub who was a friend of Taka II's were kidnapped by a Scarred Pride recruiting group that Nuka was a part of. From the story Nuka had told Kovu, some logs fell into the right places that saved him from getting fatally crushed but was hit hard on the head and he dramatically thought he was dying when he was instead just losing consciousness. He was part of the Scarred Pride for a while and tried to impress Zira like always. However, after Scar was killed by Wraith, Zira used Nuka as a scapegoat, blaming everything on him and said some other things that hurt Nuka to his core, causing him to change sides.

He was accepted into the Pride Lands despite his past and grew close to Vitani, even Kovu like he never had before. Oh, and one other thing happened with him as well.

"Nuka wait for us you, big lug." came the voice of Zuri, one of Kiara's best friends.

Zuri came walking over to the others while carrying a cub by it's scruff. The cub had tawny-orange fur like Zuri, but it was darker thanks to Nuka's brown fur, a grey furred underbelly, and grey spots on her ears, red eyes, black Pride Lander nose, a small tuft of fur on her head, and the fur on her cheek were scruffy while the rest of fur over her body was all smooth. The cub's name was Safi, which meant clean, and she was Zuri and Nuka's daughter, who was born just a month and one week after Siri. During Kopa's fight with Zira, Vitani along with Kiara, Kion, and Zuri came in to help, so did Nuka later. Nuka and Zuri had saved each other from Zira, and Zuri looked after him during their time in the Scarred Pride.

When they came back to the Pride Lands, Nuka and Zuri spent more time with each other and eventually got into a relationship, which was weird since Zuri was a beautiful lioness and Nuka was an ugly lion, but they actually turned out to be a perfect couple. Nuka shared the same care for his outer looks like Zuri did since he never had it to begin with, and Nuka liked to roll around in flowers to make sure he didn't smell bad like he used to. Thanks to Zuri months later, Nuka had more smooth and shiny fur and mane that was still small, but growing slowly thicker, but he was still a little scruffy in a few areas. It made Kopa happy to see them together, considering the fact that Zuri was in love with him when he was still known as Siri, before she eventually accepted that he was in love with Vitani.

"Hi Zuri." Kopa greeted her.

"Hi Kopa, I hope Nuka and I aren't interrupting anything between you and your two girls and son." Zuri laughed through her teeth.

"Oh, it's no bother at all dear." Dalia answered.

"Yeah, we were just thinking of taking a walk through the savannah with Siri, and maybe I could go on a solo hunt." Vitani said.

"Yeah, we heard. You still didn't answer my question though, could me, Zuri, and Safi come. I could help, and I've been practicing my hunting skills." Nuka pushed.

"Well, I guess we could, but only if Siri and Safi approve." Kopa said.

Zuri got the message and sat Safi down, next to Siri. Siri, sensing the cub next to him stop sucking and looked towards the younger cub. The cub laughed in delight at seeing his younger cousin and batted a paw at her. Safi laughed and returned the gesture, only a little rougher and made Siri fall against his mother's belly. The adult lions and hyena laughed at the cub's antics.

"Well, I guess that settles it than." Dalia observed.

* * *

About half an hour later, the four lions were eating from a single animal carcass while Dalia was sticking her head in the nearby river, catching fish. When Zuri asked the elderly hyena why she wouldn't rather eat something from a regular prey animal, Dalia said that she liked the taste of fish better, but still told the others to save her some of the carcass if she felt like any later. Siri and Safi had tried to eat some meat from the carcass but were unable to due to their still developing teeth, so they were left to suck at their mother's bellies. When Dalia ate her fill of fish, she walked over to the others. She leaned against Kopa's mane, placed her paws on her belly and sighed.

"You know, we really need to get out like this more often." Dalia said.

"When the rainy season comes and we get cooler temperatures next month, for sure." Kopa agreed.

"Oh, what's the matter, can't take a little hot and dry air?" Vitani asked.

Everyone looked towards her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zuri asked.

"Two words doll face." Vitani replied.

Vitani held up one claw at a time as she said the next two words.

"Out, lands." Vitani explained.

Kopa, Dalia, and Zuri looked at each other, not getting what Vitani saying like Nuka was. Nuka saw this and began to explain what Vitani meant.

"She's basically calling you all wusses, because thanks to us living in the Outlands for years, we can take on the heat of the Pride Lands' dry season better since it's not like the Outlands'. The hot temperature here during the dry season is basically cold to us." Nuka explained.

"Oh, how lovely." Dalia sarcastically replied.

"Now hay, I can take of the dry season's heat just as well as you Vitani." Zuri defended herself.

Vitani looked towards Zuri with her infamous mocking smirk.

"Ha! Yeah right, Siri can handle the dry season's heat better than you, and he's still a cub, not able to talk or eat meat yet, and as an added bonus, he's got Outlander blood in his veins." Vitani boasted.

"Duh, so does mine." Zuri said, gently shaking Nuka's head.

"Yeah, but I'm the strong Outlander and he's the weak one." Vitani stated.

"Hay!" Nuka protested.

"Take it as a complement, because if the Pride Lands ever go into war again, you'll feel relieved to know the enemy likes to go after the strongest first." Vitani sarcastically explained.

"So, me being weak is a good thing?" Nuka asked.

"Oh, just ignore her Nuka." Zuri laughed.

Everyone laughed at the whole conversation, except Nuka, who was still confused about Vitani's statement. Everyone now started to stand up.

"Hay, should we drag the rest of this carcass back to Pride Rock?" Nuka asked.

"Nah, just leave it for some other predator to find and scavenge on to make their day easier." Dalia said.

The group began to walk aimlessly through the savannah. While they walked, Siri and Safi ran around them, batting paws at each other.

"So, what do you think we should do now?" Kopa asked.

"Oh, I got an idea, let' go see how Aunt Shenzi and Uncles Banzai and Ed are doing." Nuka excitedly suggested.

"Yeah, we haven't talked with them in a few days, and I'm sure they'd love to see Siri." Vitani agreed.

The group turned around and began in the direction of where Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed lived in the Pride Lands. After the end of Scar's reign, Shenzi and her clan went into hiding back in the elephant graveyard. The entire clan had stuck so close to the shadows that everyone thought they had left of the Pride Lands. They had only come out at night to attack herds while they slept to get food and water. Also, during the end of the war between the Pride Landers and Outlanders, they had found Nuka, who was still trapped under the logs that everyone thought had killed him.

They had carefully dug Nuka out and brought him to the elephant graveyard, where he woke up days later and learned of the outcome of the war. With Nuka having nowhere to go, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed took him in since they raised him as cub during Scar's reign more than Zira ever did and saw him as the son they never knew they wanted. They stayed in the graveyard for a few months before deciding it was time to set off and find better lands, but soon after they left, they ran into a group of Scarred Pride recruiters led by Wraith. Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed were even with Nuka when they kidnapped Kovu, Taka II, and Bluu. During the first battle with the Scarred Pride in the Scarred Lands, Taka II and Bluu ran away from the battle and ran into Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed.

The two friends had gotten separated and Taka II was caught by the three hyenas. They would have eaten him had Timon and Pumbaa not come to his rescue. The three used the environment and things they found in the abandoned human camp that was in the Scarred Lands to harm Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, but Taka II ended up getting separated from Timon and Pumbaa as well. The three hyenas had cornered him and Shenzi gave the cub a scar across one of his eyes, identical to Scar and his father, Kovu's. They would have torn his limbs off had Jasiri not arrived in time with Timon and Pumbaa.

The thing after that was is that Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed changed sides to help the Pride Landers, former Outlanders, and the Scarred Pride resistance pride fight the Scarred Landers. The reason being because of Shenzi and Banzai's daughter, their long-lost daughter who they thought had been dead for years, Jasiri. When Zira was banished after supposedly killing Kopa, she somehow found out that Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed were still in the graveyard and decided to attack and kill them for failing to protect Scar. Jasiri was a few months old at the time and was lost in the struggle. An Outlander, who was a friend of Kovu, Vitani, and Nuka's, had taken pity on the hyenas since she didn't agree with the attack.

The lioness, thinking the clan wasn't going to come back, took her to the clan that Jasiri had thought was her biological family for years. It was very tense at first, but Simba with a little persuasion had decided to forgive Shenzi and her clan for all the things they've done and give them one last chance and live in the Pride Lands so they could bond with Jasiri and make up for lost time. Jasiri hadn't accepted them at first, but eventually warmed up to them with Kion's support giving her the courage she needed to face them. They were now a happy family and clan together, along with the clan Jasiri grew up with for most of her puphood. When they got near the den, they saw Jasiri sparring with her parents and Ed, who acted like an uncle towards her, while Kion, Madoa, Tunu, and Wema were watching.

Jasiri was a great fighter, arguably the best in the Pride Lands, but still, she was no match for the combined efforts of both her parents and surrogate uncle. Shenzi and Banzai were both able to pin her down easily.

"Ha, got you!" Banzai shouted in victory.

"Oh, I let you three win." Jasiri argued.

The three hyenas got up and all rubbed their snouts together. Ed than came up to Jasiri and licked her cheek.

"Hay, that tickles." Jasiri laughed.

"Sorry, we just love to hear that giggle of yours." Shenzi said.

"Oh, don't worry about it." Jasiri said, giving one of said giggles.

Back with the others, Siri took a step forward, but the cub slipped on a small rock. The cub was sent rolling and stopped when it rolled into Banzai's leg. Banzai jolted slightly before looking down to see what hit him. Siri gasped when he saw the old hyena's frowning face, which was soon replaced with a greeting smile.

"Well, look who we have here guys." Banzai said, taking the cub up and cradling him in one of his forelegs, "It's Prince Siri."

Kion leaned in to see his nephew along with Jasiri's family.

"Hay Siri, what are you doing all the way out here?" Kion asked the cub.

"Over here." Kopa shouted down to his youngest sibling.

The group looked to see Kopa and the others walking towards them. Banzai set Siri down, who immediately went back to playing with Safi.

"What are you all doing out here?" Kion asked.

"Yeah, it's so hot that I don't want to move, which I don't know why I'm moving than." Banzai said.

"Me and Kopa fell asleep star gazing last night, came back to Pride Rock to get Siri and Dalia, and went on a small hunting trip for ourselves and Zuri and Nuka." Vitani explained.

"Oh, is there anything of the carcass left, the clan can use it if you don't mind, since it's too hot to hunt anyway?" Banzai asked.

"Yeah, it's by the gorge" Zuri answered.

"Alright, come on Ed." Banzai said, running off.

Ed began laughing as he followed Banzai.

"Hay boys, wait for me!" Shenzi shouted at them.

Jasiri, Kion, Madoa, Tunu, and Wema joined running after them.

"Oh, don't tell me, we're going to walk all the way back, aren't we?" Nuka groaned.

"Well, we came to see them, so might as well help them." Kopa said.

"You all go help them, I'll stay here and make sure Siri and Safi don't cause any trouble." Dalia offered.

"Just don't eat them." Kopa joked, rubbing paw through Dalia's hair.

Kopa, Vitani, Zuri, and Nuka all ran after Jasiri's family and Kion. As they did so, Siri was currently trying to climb onto Dalia back. Dalia smiled at the young cub and grabbed him and placed him on his back in front of her. The cub smiled up at her, showing his tiny and still developing teeth to his adoptive hyena grandmother.

"You've got some impressive little chompers there little one, but I bet they're not as impressive as mine." Dalia said.

The elderly hyena smiled down at the cub, showing all her bone crush teeth to the cub. The cub stood up and batted Dalia's nose with his paw. Dalia couldn't help but giggle.

"You're a brave little cub." Dalia said proudly.

* * *

The carcass was still near the gorge when everyone got there.

"Alright, it's a zebra. Good prey pick Vitani." Banzai said, walking up to his lioness surrogate niece.

"Kiss or hug me and I'll tare off your eyebrows." Vitani warned.

While everyone else was gathering the carcass, Kopa and Vitani noticed Shenzi walking towards the gorge.

"Where's she going?" Vitani wondered out loud.

Vitani and Kopa began walking off before turning to look back at the others.

"Go on, the others and I can take care of this." Kion said.

"Hay, let me and Jasiri come with you two also." Banzai said.

The four walked off to follow Shenzi. When they got to the gorge, they saw her go down the slope that led into it. Kopa took a look down into the gorge before following Shenzi.

"This place gives me the creeps." Kopa stated.

"Well, considering what happened here when your dad was still a cub, why wouldn't it?" Jasiri asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't it." Banzai said with a hint of regret in what he had helped Scar do here ten years ago.

Jasiri rubbed her head against his cheek, knowing that the regret he had gained was genuine, even if he wasn't a big fan of Mufasa back then. When they all got to the bottom of the gorge, they saw Shenzi pacing and looking around. Eventually, she walked over to a certain rock, the rock that Scar had told Simba to wait of ten years ago as he got Mufasa for Simba's 'to die for' surprise. However, she wasn't thinking of those events, she was thinking about another event that happened involving this rock and it involved the large, long dried up blood stain that had permanently stained the rock.

"Hay, Aunt Shenzi, what are you doing down here?" Vitani asked as she and the others came up to her.

Shenzi looked at them blankly before looking back at the rock and dried up blood strain. The others finally noticed the blood stain.

"Still covered in his blood." Shenzi said.

"Who's blood?" Vitani asked.

"My great grandfather, Cletus'." Shenzi replied.

"Your great grandfather?" Kopa questioned.

"Yes, the mate to my great grandmother, Mary, or Bloody Mary as she's more commonly known." Shenzi said.

"Bloody Mary, I know that name. Kiara talked about her when I first met her." Jasiri said.

"That she started the rebellion because her mate was killed?" Shenzi questioned.

"Yeah." Jasiri replied.

"Well, this was the place where Cletus was executed for killing the crowned prince of the Pride Lands, the older brother to Princess Uru." Shenzi said.

"Yeah, I've seen paintings of it in the Lion Guard's lair at Pride Rock." Jasiri said.

"Really, can you show them to me after we drag that zebra carcass back to the clan?" Shenzi asked.

"Sure, I'll show all of you if you want." Jasiri offered the others.

"Alright, it'll be interesting to see them." Kopa agreed.

"I've never been told the story, so I could go for it." Vitani also agreed.

"Alright than, let's help the others and head to Pride Rock." Jasiri said, taking the lead.

They all went back up to the others and helped them drag what was left of the animal carcass back to the den. When they got back, they saw that Madoa's mate, Baruti had joined Dalia in watching Siri and Safi, who were now playing with Madoa and Baruti's two-month-old daughter, Uzanzai. Uzanzai was the first generation of hyena pups to be born in the Pride Lands ever since Jasiri and her adoptive clan were let into the Pride Lands, and her name could be translated to generation's first. Dalia and Baruti noticed the others had come back and got up to greet them.

"Well, that was quick." Dalia commented.

Vitanti bent down to nuzzle both Dalia and Siri.

"Well, we were able to get back quick since it wasn't a full catch and eleven to drag it." Vitani replied.

"Anything special happen while you were out shopping?" Baruti asked as he and Madoa pressed their heads together.

"Shenzi, Jasiri, Banzai, Kopa, and Vitani took a walk into the gorge." Tunu answered.

"What for?" Baruti asked, not knowing why anybody would want to walk the grounds of the gorge after what happened there.

"A bit of reflection and a bit of seeing a historical site." Shenzi said.

"What kind of historical site?" Dalia asked while Siri was tugging on her tail.

"The spark of rebellion, the hyena rebellion led by Bloody Mary." Shenzi said.

"The place where her great grandfather was executed." Banzai answered.

"Sounds… fun." Baruti said awkwardly.

"Yeah, and I'm going to show them the paintings of the rebellion at Pride Rock, you can come to if you want Baruti." Jasiri said.

"Sure, but what about Uzanzai, Siri, and Safi?" Baruti asked, "They're all still so young that they probably won't understand what were talking about with the rebellion and won't remember, but still."

"Oh, don't worry Baruti, I'll continue to watch them; you and the others just go and have fun looking at some paintings and doing some learning." Dalia said.

Baruti jokingly made an 'uck!' face and sound after Dalia said 'learning.' Madoa jokingly dragged Baruti by the ear as she followed everyone towards Pride Rock. Kopa looked back at Dalia as they walked.

"We'll see you later, and remember, don't eat them." Kopa warned.

Dalia took one of Siri's front legs and began to gently gnaw on it.

"Yum yum." Dalia jokingly said before licking her lips.

"Silly old hyena." Siri mumbled to himself.

Jasiri led everyone to Pride Rock, to the cave that served as the Lion Guard's lair. She parted some vines that hung over the entrance and gestured everyone inside. The air immediately became cooler now that they were out of the sun. When everyone entered the lair, they saw dozens of paintings on the wall, one of Kion and his Lion Guard, of Scar's and his Lion Guard, all the way back to Askari, son of King Kwanza, first lion king of the Pride Lands. Paintings of every single Lion Guard of the Pride Lands and their adventures weren't the only paintings though.

There were paintings that showed the Pride Lands history: King Kwanza and the hyena matriarch, Scar receiving his scar from a water buffalo, Scar's rise and fall, the banishment of the Outsiders and the unity between them, Jasiri's clan being welcomed into the Pride Lands, and more recently, the events that happened with the Scarred Pride. However, the painting everyone was focusing on was the hyena rebellion. Everyone saw paintings of King Mohatu, his daughter, Princess Uru, and her betrothed Ahadi facing dozens of hyenas being led by a single brown one with red marks on her face.

"That's the hyena rebellion." Kopa gasped.

"Yep, and that's my great grandmother." Shenzi said, looking at the brown furred hyena at the forefront.

"You know, I still can't believe you had a great grandmother." Nuka said dumbly.

"Everyone's got a great grandmother, ya dummy." Baruti said.

"Na uh, what about the first animals that ever lived, they could never have had great grandmothers since they were the first ever animals, or grandparents, or even parents." Nuka argued.

"Uh, if you two are done arguing, I think we would like Shenzi to start explaining the story since she knows the most about it." Kopa said.

"Gladly." Shenzi said.

Shenzi looked towards a painting that showed King Mohatu surrounded by his pride and a few hyenas while two lionesses held down a single hyena in front of him.

"Okay, so like I've said before, the rebellion began with the execution of my great grandfather, Cletus. He was executed for killing King Mohatu's son, Prince Cheza. Now, Cletus didn't work well or play nice with others. He was a deranged hyena full of pure savagery and carnage. He didn't treat any herds with respect and brutalized his kills instead of giving it a quick and as painless as possible death and Mary liked him that way." Shenzi explained.

"She did?" Zuri exclaimed.

"Oh yes. You see, the herds greatly feared Cletus for his brutal ways and always complained about it to Mohatu, asking him to do something about it. He talked to Cletus himself and Mary many times, but both refused to change anything. Mary was a 'I want everything, and I want it my way' type of hyena, and she wanted Cletus just the way he was." Shenzi said.

"So far, this is all sounding more like a Bloody Cletus than and Bloody Mary." Nuka commented.

"She's getting to that." Banzai whispered.

Nuka shut up and turned back to Shenzi.

"Now, on to the day that started the spark of rebellion." Shenzi said.

* * *

 **And that is the prologue everyone.** **Oh man, it felt so good to write Dalia's character again. Next chapter we'll meet Bloody Mary, Cleetus, Prince Cheza (Which means spark in Swahili according to Google translator by the way), and a few more OC's along with Uru, Ahadi, and Mohatu. Until the next chapter everybody, please leave a kind and respectful review and check out my other fanfics if you haven't yet, good night/day, happy beginning of Spring, and God bless.**


	2. Chapter 1: Mary and Cletus

**Chapter 1: Mary and Cletus**

 **Oh my gosh ladies and gentlemen, it's finally here, the chapter that I and I'm sure a lot of you have been waiting so patiently for, the chapter where I finally introduce Shenzi's great grandmother, Bloody Mary. You all have no idea how much fun it was to finally write this chapter and Mary's character after talking about her for so long since vaguely mentioning her in the Scared Pride and then by name in Kion's Homecoming, it was also fun to write Cletus as well. Anyway, I'm starting to geek out over my long awaited new OC's too much, so read on and I hope you enjoy Mary and Cletus as much as I enjoyed writing them.**

* * *

In the Pride Lands, during the reign of King Mohatu the Great, the sun was rising on another hot and unusually dry day. It was the beginning of May, the last month of the long rainy season. The only thing was that this rainy season had not been so wet with rain water in the last two months since the short dry season ended. It had rained once, but it ended just as quickly as it started, not lasting even five minutes. It most likely wasn't going to get better anytime soon with the long dry season nearing, which would last for five months.

The ground was rough beneath the feet of every animal and the beautiful green grass had gone pale and barley edible for herbivores. The watering hole still had water, but that was going away fast and would have sooner had King Mohatu not acted. He gathered all the animals together and they all worked on an agreement on how to ration the water out and how much water each type of animal should drink. Some animals had to wait a few days before they could drink, lions going last since they could go the longest without water. The plan had worked, but some animal herds still went off to migrate to better lands until this long devastating drought passed.

That in turn also made food harder to get for carnivores. Times were hard, but everyone was pulling through and helping each other and trusting King Mohatu and his wife, Queen Juli. However, there were some animals who were causing difficulties, the hyena clan that lived in a rocky area in the western area of the Pride Lands. The hyenas usually had a close friendship with the lions, but that friendship had been strained for a long while now. Nearly two years ago, the original matriarch and chief of the clan had mysteriously died, leaving their young adult daughter, who had just come of age, to take over.

That daughter of theirs was however not yet ready to rule a clan of hyenas. She was inexperienced and seemed to have very little respect for the royal lion family, and she had a mate, who use to be a 'rogue hyena', that was just as bad as her. The lion king and queen didn't personally like them, but dealt with them out of duty and tried to guide them to be better rulers, but they wouldn't listen. The new matriarch and her mate's behavior had seemed to have had a bad influence on other members of the clan as well. Some teenage hyenas who were at that age where later in life they might say they were young and stupid started acting like bullies, harassing animals.

Even other young adult hyenas acted out and harassed other animals throughout the Pride Lands as well. Just a month and a half ago, some hyenas, including the matriarch and chief hunted near the watering hole, which was strictly forbidden. An argument broke out between King Mohatu and the new matriarch, who argued that if hunting near the watering hole was forbidden, then herds could abuse the law by just staying there for protection. It was a long and heated argument, but King Mohatu had eventually convinced the matriarch to begrudgingly stop hunting near the watering hole. Other than that incident, the hyenas had caused no other real harm, not wanting to deal with King Mohatu or Queen Juli, but their behavior still greatly worried everyone.

Those hyenas however were only a few bad apples in the bunch. A majority of the clan, young and old still held a great respect and humbleness towards the royal lion family. Also, the new matriarch and chief's son was unlike them. He was a respectful, kind, polite, and if somewhat nervous young hyena pup, and friends with the lion king and queen's young daughter, Uru. The new matriarch and chief didn't really like their son hanging around the royal lion princess, but they couldn't openly forbid it without fully getting on everyone's bad side since there was no rational reason why their son couldn't socialize with Princess Uru.

Also, it was somewhat of an unwritten tradition for the royal lion heir(s) to regularly socialize and form a friendly relationship with the heir(s) of other animal herds for when they became king or queen one day, and they knew the king and queen would keep annoying them like that until they relented. Uru wasn't the future queen or obviously king, that title belonged to her older brother, Prince Cheza, but she still formed that relationship with the matriarch and chief's son, were there anything to cause her to be the queen one day. The matriarch and chief still did what they could to keep their son and Princess Uru from spending too much time together. Their efforts didn't do much good though since their son was so determined to always see Princess Uru since he had no friends in the clan that he always found out how to bypass their attempts. Currently on this rainless day of the rainy season, the new hyena chief was walking back to his den, where his mate awaited him.

They had woken up this morning to find that their son was not with them in their den, so his mate made him go see if their son was still in their territory. His efforts were fruitless and he honestly preferred it that way. If he did find him, he would have to listen to him whine about wanting to see Uru and that it's good for the relationship between the clan and the pride, and he could maybe ask for some tips on being a leader since the chief and his wife were often too 'busy.' When the chief got to his den, he inhaled deeply to gain his wife's scent.

"Ahhh. The aroma of a beautiful strong female. Mary's scent." the chief said, voice full of lust.

The chief entered with a cocky stroll in his step and grin on his face. In the den, he saw a female hyena with dark brown fur, a darker brown underbelly and spots along her body, purple eyes, her ears were sharp and pointy, with the left having a savage tare in it, her eyebrows were more bushy and masculine looking, her black hyenas mane traveled from the middle of her back to form hair on her head with two thick locks hanging over the left side of her face, separating for her left eye to see while three prominent bangs hang over the right side of her face, and she was at most a quarter of a pound away from being considered at least slightly fat. She was currently chewing on a bone that looked to once be a zebra's front leg. The hyena was grumbling to herself, complaining about the obvious lack of meat on the bone and that she hated the taste of zebra. The chief hyena took one more step forward and cleared his throat to get the female hyena's attention.

Upon hearing somebody in her den, the female hyena growled and looked up with a snarling look on her face. The look was instantly washed away when she saw the hyena in front of her. Grey fur with black spots, lighter grey underbelly, fully yellow, wide and shaky eyes, ears as pointy and sharp as hers, but had only a small tare in his left ear while he was missing most of his right ear, he had a notch in his bottom lip, five long scars on his left side from some big cat, two on his left shoulder, one down his right back leg, a small crescent shaped scar below his right eye, and one big one on his forehead, his hyenas mane turned into wild crazy hair on his forehead hanging just above his eyes, the fur of his tail was shorter than it should have been, and he was a foot or two taller than the average hyena. A grin spread across the female hyena's face.

"Cletus." the female hyena said.

"Dear, sweet Mary." Cletus said.

Cletus walked up closer to Mary, who stood up so she could reach higher to enter a lustful lip kiss with him. After kissing for well over a minute, they pulled away for air. Mary sighed.

"It feels good to feel you inside me." Mary said lustfully.

"I was just about to say the same thing." Cletus replied.

Mary wrapped a foreleg around Cletus' thick neck and pulled him down to lay next to her. Cletus laid there for a few moments, looking all over Mary's body to take in her beauty. Mary noticed this and smirked.

"Like what you see?" Mary asked.

Cletus rolled Mary onto her back and placed himself on top of her. He placed one of his claws on Mary's lips before slowly dragging it down to under her chin, down her neck, chest, belly, and so on till he dragged his claw to the tip of her black tail. Cletus than finally gave his answer.

"Yes, I like." Cletus said, lustfully licking his lips.

This only widened Mary's smirk, but it soon disappeared.

"Did you find Amani?" Mary asked.

Cletus' lustful smirk also disappeared.

"No, I couldn't find the little brat." Cletus groaned.

Mary growled irritably as she heard, knowing where he had gone. He had gone to see Princess Uru, despite her wishes for him not to. Mary squirmed out from under Cletus and walked out of their cave. She climbed on top of the giant stone slab that served as the roof of their den. She looked into the distance to see if she could spot her son, but couldn't even see a moving dot that could have been him.

Mary than looked even further into the distance and could just barley make out the far-off shape of Pride Rock, the home of the lions.

"Lion, bah!" Mary replied.

Cletus got onto the stone slab with Mary and looked towards Pride Rock as well.

"I don't like lions anymore than you love, but I gotta say, they have a lovely home." Cletus said.

Mary shot a glare towards Cletus. She shoulda slugged him for even remotely complementing the lions even if he didn't mean to. Even though Mary was female hyena and Cletus a male hyena, he was larger and tougher than her, but she wasn't afraid to get physically violent with him if he made her mad.

"You dimwit, that 'lovely home' should be OUR lovely home! Not this bland and boring looking rocky area." Mary fumed. "Pride Rock was rightfully mine long before I was ever even born!"

Cletus looked towards Mary with a bored, yet slightly curious look.

"Pride Rock was rightfully yours long before you were born, how so?" Cletus asked.

"Didn't I explain this to you before already Cletus?" Mary questioned.

"Maybe, but if so, I've forgotten." Cletus admitted.

"You, deaf moron!" Mary growled.

Mary raised a paw to strike Cletus, but calmed down and gestured for him to follow her in the cave as she explained.

"You see, my ancestors lived in this land for many generations without the presence of a lion pride. That was until the time of my great great grandmother, Mambwa. King Mohatu's great grandfather, King Kwanza, I think his name was, and his small pride of lions and lionesses in the middle of their teenage years, encountered her daughter, my great grandmother." Mary explained.

"Uh huh, I think I remember that part, but what happened next?" Cletus asked.

"Apparently, Matriarch Mambwa took pity on Kwanza after he told her why he and a bunch of other teenage lions were traveling alone with no adult lions or lionesses to protect them." Mary explained.

"What did happen?" Cletus asked.

"Betrothal, dear Cletus, betrothal." Mary answered. "From what is said, Kwanza's parents were betrothed to each other, but they never grew to love each other, they only grew to hate each other. In the end, it ultimately destroyed their pride and left their young teenage cubs to travel the world alone." Mary explained. "Even to this day, the pride has still not learnt that lesson. They still have marriages made through betrothal of a cub the king and queen approve of and not by genuine love the heir feels towards another. Just like my parents tried to do with me."

A rumble escaped Cletus' throat at the mention of Mary's parents.

"Yes, your parents. Trying to marry you off to some pretty boy instead of me. Unsophisticated they called me, violent tendencies they said I have, not a clan member they said I was." Cletus remembered.

"Yes." Mary agreed. "They thought that love was an easy thing to define. They thought I could find love in a young high-ranking male of our clan that they approved of, not giving a damn about how I felt about it. I could never find love in him, but instead I could find love in a hyena that wasn't part of our clan, just a wandering rogue hyena who had to adopt said violent tendencies to survive in a world that would be violent to him… which was not very encouraging, they said." Mary said with a growl towards the end.

Cletus growled thinking of Mary's parents and the fact that they wouldn't allow them to marry each other just because of the way he was. There was no way Cletus was going to change who he was just because Mary's parents didn't approve. Cletus soon smirked sinisterly however.

"Well, if it wasn't for that… bloody little accident your parents had the day you came of age, I wouldn't have been made a member of this clan and you would have had to marry that pretty boy." Cletus said.

"Yes, and that pretty boy had a bloody little accident to." Mary said, smirking as well.

Both of them took a moment to laugh cheerily before Mary continued.

"So, as I'm sure you've guessed by now, Matriarch Mambwa out of pity for Kwanza and his teenaged pride, took them in for a few years, taught Kwanza on how to be a good leader, gave him and his pride, Pride Rock, and proclaimed him the Pride Lands' first lion king." Mary finished.

"Ah yes, now I remember you telling me." Cletus nodded.

"Well, do you remember what I told you next, my dear Cletus?" Mary asked.

Cletus thought for a second before shaking his head. Mary buried her face in her paw. She loved Cletus dearly and knew he wasn't dumb, but he sure did act dumb sometimes.

"Well, answer me this Cletus: who writes history?" Mary asked.

"The people involved in the events of history so they're remembered correctly?" Cletus answered.

"Hmm. Well, you're half right. The real answer though is it's the winners, Cletus, it's the winners who write the history." Mary confirmed. "Think about it, everyone views themselves as the hero of their own story, and sometimes it's convenient lie we tell ourselves. The ones who view themselves as the heroes could actually be the villains while the ones they view as the 'villains' are actually the true heroes, and the other side can have the same thoughts about the other and both can use lies and other propaganda to make others view them as the 'hero' standing in the spotlight. A brother can kill his brother, who is the king and frame the son in order to get the throne. Whatever side you believe all depends on your point of view."

"So, what you're basically saying is that you don't believe your great great grandmother gave Pride Rock to Kwanza or proclaimed him the Pride Lands' first king willingly?" Cletus asked.

"Of course, I don't believe that. I mean really, does everyone expect me to believe that my great great grandmother would just willingly give up a symbol of authority and power like Pride Rock away to some wannabe lion king. It doesn't make any sense. Like I said Cletus, the winners write history, not the losers. Lions and hyenas are capable of having friendly relationships, I'll admit, but still, at the end of the day, both our kinds have been natural enemies since the dawn of time. What I believe is that Kwanza came into the Pride Lands and won it and Pride Rock from my great great grandmother through a war with my clan and forced them to bend the knee to him as their new king." Mary explained. "And if you want an example on why I think my belief is more reasonable, look at who Mohatu has got his daughter, Uru betrothed to. That ex-rogue lion Ahadi, who barely hides his disliking for us hyenas as a whole, even when our clan has never done anything to him."

Cletus nodded in agreement.

"Yes, what you believe sounds more reasonable, especially with your Ahadi example." Cletus agreed.

"Yes, and the generations of hyenas that came along with my parents and grandparents believed in King Kwanza's and his descendants lies of claiming how my great great grandmother practically gift wrapped the Pride Lands and Pride Rock and gave them to Kwanza and his pride because they were a bunch of morons who were as stupid as warthogs. Kwanza stole my birth right and his descendants have managed to steal my son, Amani, and he hangs out with Mohatu's daughter Uru." Mary ranted, grinding her teeth. "Such a disappointment. I've tried so hard to make him see the truth and to keep him away from the lions as much as I can, but the ungrateful brat never listens."

"Maybe unlike you, he was just a lion lover from the start." Cletus shrugged.

"Yes, I suppose your right." Mary sighed. "All my hopes and dreams of a new generation of smarter hyenas, who see things the way I do, tainted by the lion loving genes of my parents and grandparents. You know, maybe if Amani had been born a girl, he wouldn't be the way he is. Besides, I need a daughter anyway to one day take over as matriarch when I die, and hopefully actually listen to me."

Cletus' eyes lit up at the mention of Mary wanting a better child and heir in the form of a daughter. Spotted hyenas were matriarchal, so a daughter was always needed. Having a male hyena lead a clan even if there were female members wasn't unheard of though, but it wasn't common either, and Mary certainly didn't want it that way. If Mary wanted a daughter for a far more worthy heir than Cletus would gladly give it to her. On the plus side for him, if a day ever came when Mary couldn't or wouldn't give him the 'comfort' he desired, he could relive the old glory days with a daughter that was young, beautiful, and would do anything to please daddy.

Cletus walked up to Mary and nuzzled her cheek with his snout.

"Well, if you want a better heir than who am I to deny my matriarch." Cletus seductively said.

Mary smirked at Cletus' eagerness. She knew she could always count on Cletus to back her up.

"Very well, we'll do so later tonight, and hopefully we'll create a far more worthy heir for the clan." Mary said.

"Good, I'll go catch a zebra for the blessing ritual. Maybe I'll even send Kuanyak and Kwamimi up here." Cletus said.

Mary adopted a look of confusion at the mention of those two hyenas.

"Why would you send those two up here?" Mary asked.

"So, they can prepare you for me for later tonight. You three can have a little fun together and get any possible unworthy pups out of the way while I go hunt that zebra for you." Cletus said before pausing a moment. "Oh, and I'll be paying a visit to Radhi and Nyama on the way back. They'll also prepare me for you later tonight and get any possible unworthy pups out of the way from me to."

Mary frowned, knowing what Cletus was getting at.

"You're an arrogant hyena who's only driving force in life is savage violence and engaging in pleasures of the flesh with young, beautiful, and powerful hyena females even when you already have a mate who is all three." Mary proclaimed.

A few silent moments passed before Mary smirked.

"I like that." she said.

Mary and Cletus lovingly butted heads together.

"Very well, if you think that will help prepare you and me for tonight and get any possible lion loving pups out of the way than do as you see fit." Mary said.

A happy growl escaped Cletus' throat before he leaned in to give Mary a lip kiss. Mary however set a claw to his lip. Mary looked up at him and smirked.

"As long as you agree to be executed in the morning." Mary said.

"At least I'd die pleasing my young and beautiful matriarch." Cletus said, playing along.

Mary finally took her claw away from Cletus lips, and then the two hyenas fell into a deep lustful lip kiss. Cletus turned and left the den after the kiss ended. Mary meanwhile laid there full of glee for tonight when Cletus would give her a far more worthy heir. Within minutes, two male hyenas appeared in the entrance of her den.

"Ah, Kuanyak, Kwamimi." Mary greeted.

"Matriarch Mary, Chief Cletus sent us up here to prepare you for him for later tonight." Kuanyak announced.

"Yeah, and he threatened to rip our throats out if we refused or failed to please you." Kwamimi mentioned.

"Hmm, and will you?" Mary questioned.

"Ha! No mam." Kuanyak and Kwamimi said.

"Good, cause if you do please me and Cletus and I get what we want, you'll have nothing to worry about. However, if you do fail to please me and Cletus and I don't get what we want, you two along with Radhi and Nyama are going to have a… bloody little accident." Mary growled.

Both Kuanyak and Kwamimi gulped with fear. Mary raised and paw and gestured the two over with a claw.

"Come now, don't be shy." Mary grinned.

Mary knew that today was going to be the beginning of when her clan's future changed forever.

* * *

 **And with that we conclude the second chapter of the story, and as you can see, Mary and Cletus aren't the friendliest or most stable hyenas on this side of the Pride Lands. Mary prides herself as some sort of philosopher who has no respect for her ancestors and rulers, and isn't very proud of her son and Cletus is a vile scumbag. I originally wanted to add more to the chapter, but I felt like the chapter worked better just focusing on Mary and Cletus' characters, so next chapter we'll meet Mary and Cletus' son, Amani and lion prince Cheza for sure, along with a couple other OCs. Now, as for name meanings, Amani means 'peace' in Swahili, Mambwa, according to Google translator is made from the Swahili words 'mama' (Yes, it's apparently a Swahili word), and 'mbwa,' meaning "mother dog," Kuanyak is made from the Swahili words 'Kuandaa' and 'yake,' meaning "Prepare her," Kwamimi is made from the Swahili words 'Kwa' and 'Mimi,' meaning "for me," Radhi means 'pleasure' in Swahili, and Nyama means 'flesh' in Swahili. Well, that's it for now everybody, I hope you enjoyed Mary and Cletus and can't wait to read more of them, but for now, good day or night, if your on summer break from school or are about to be, than I wish you a fun and sunny, but hopefully not too hot summer and God bless you everyone.**


	3. Chapter 2: Uru and Amani

**Chapter 2: Uru and Amani**

 **Alright everyone, I'm back with The Story of Our Exile's third chapter and I'm sorry for the long wait. I just had multiple days in a row to where I got caught up in other things or just didn't feel like writing, but I'm finally here to give it to you. Now please read and enjoy the chapter and leave a comment in the review section.**

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Deep into the morning, as Mary, Cletus, and the rest of the hyena clan were all wide awake and doing their daily activities, the same could not be said for the lions. They were all still lazily sleeping the morning away, most not planning to get up until way late in the day for cooler temperatures. One young lioness was on the verge of waking up though, Princess Uru. Uru was a young year and two-month-old lioness with dark reddish brown fur and lighter toned markings on her legs near her paws, a dark cream colored underbelly, rimmed ears, a pink nose, and she had green eyes. The young lioness was restlessly rolling around, her body ready to start the day even though her mind wasn't.

She had promised her best friend, hyena prince, Amani that she'd meet him today by the watering hole. She knew he always left to meet her very early in the morning, so she had to get up early to. Uru turned over once more in her sleep and her legs kicked out. As soon as she did, she was awoken by a sharp pain in both her back paws. She jumped up with a painful yelp and looked to see her year and a month older brother, Cheza also just waking up.

Cheza had light brown fur and nose, a beige underbelly, and orange eyes like their father, and his mane was dark red with some small lighter red streaks through it, and it had not yet connected with the fur on his shoulders and chest. He was clenching his jaw as he looked down at her.

"Oww! Uru, you just kicked me in the jaw." Cheza complained.

"You nearly bit my toes off." Uru also complained back.

Cheza just sighed and got over the whole thing.

"Hay, about what time is it anyway?" Uru asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Cheza looked towards the entrance of the den. It wasn't midday yet, but it was well into the morning.

"Well, I'd say it'll be midday in an hour or two." Cheza reported to his sister.

"Oh, geez!" Uru gasped.

"What's wrong Uru?" Cheza asked.

"I promised Amani that I would meet him at the watering hole early in the morning. He must have been waiting there for a couple hours by now." Uru said.

Uru began to make a run for the den entrance, but Cheza grabbed her by the scruff after a couple strides. Cheza put Uru on his back, between his shoulder blades.

"Why don't I walk you through the sea of bodies that are the lionesses of our pride?" Cheza offered.

Uru looked at all the sleeping members of their pride. There was at most twenty-five lionesses in front of them and just as many cubs.

"Sure, I could use a ride." Uru agreed.

"It's more like you need a ride, because unlike you I won't jump on some of them or step on any tails and paws." Cheza teased.

"Only because your legs are longer. I just need to grow a little more." Uru replied.

Cheza carried Uru through the sleeping pride to the den entrance without jumping or stepping on anybody like he claimed. Uru slid off Cheza's back, who decided to go back to sleep for a little bit.

"Don't you want to join me and Amani?" Uru asked.

"Maybe later, I'm going to go on patrol with dad when he wakes up, but first, just at least one more hour of some shut-eye" Cheza said.

Uru wished him luck with that and the two siblings went their separate ways. Uru quickly made her way for the stone steps of Pride Rock, not wanting to keep Amani waiting for her any longer than he already had been. Amani had a lot of nervousness and anxiety in him, which caused him to become paranoid if he was left alone for too long. Uru was also Amani's only true friend and she didn't want him to think she ditched him even though she knew he knew that she would never do that. As she was coming close to the bottom of the steps, she saw a lion laying down at the very bottom.

A large full-grown lion with light brown fur and a thick darker brown mane. His back was to Uru, fully unaware of her. A small smile stretched at the corners of Uru's mouth. This was the perfect time for some pouncing practice. Uru lowered her body further to the ground and began to sneak down towards the unsuspecting lion.

" _He won't know what hit him_." Uru thought to herself as she came closer.

When Uru was just two stone steps away from the lion, she judged that this would be the perfect spot to jump from. She pressed her legs firmly against the ground, readying her jump. Uru took a deep breath through the mouth and exhaled silently through her nose like her mother, Juli told her to always do before making her pounce to help her relax and focus. Uru than made her pounce and it looked like she was going to catch the lion off guard, but he suddenly rolled over, grabbed her in his large paws and rolled back over pinning her into the ground. She got a look at the rest of the lion's features.

He had a small scar near his chin, which had a small tuft of fur the same shade of brown as his mane, and he had blue-green eyes. The lion had the perfect chance to strike back at her, but he laughed instead.

"Sorry little lady, but another pounce, another failure." the brown lion said.

"Aww man, I was so close this time. I breathed through the mouth and exhaled through the nose quietly like mom said, and I was quite even when coming down as well before I even thought to pounce on you." Uru complained.

"Well when you spend two years as a wondering rogue needing to protect his little sister, you develop super hearing to the point of where you can hear the footsteps of a fly on the ground from a mile away." the lion explained.

This lion was Heshima, Queen Juli's older brother, and Uru's uncle. Roughly three years ago during the late long dry season, they arrived in the Pride Lands as rogues who had been wandering around for two years. Their home pride had been taken over by some rogue lions who followed something that they and Uru's father called the 'old way' and they fled away before the rogue lions could do anything to them. They both settled down in the Pride Lands after Uru's mother grew closer to Mohatu and became mates. Heshima from as far as Uru knew, slept outside the cave, sometimes on Pride Rock's platform or at the bottom.

He didn't do it because he wasn't close to the pride or anything, he did because from what Uru's mom explained, he did it to be on lookout duty for their safety during the night. Out of all her family, Heshima was Uru's personal favorite and she respected him greatly. He always had a wise word for her when she needed it, as well as a mysterious and outlawish vibe to him like a rogue and he had seen a lot of things that he remembered more than Uru's mother. Uru just didn't like that he seemed to be the only one her pounces didn't work on. He took his paw off her to let her back onto her paws.

"Where are you off to by the way little lady." Heshima asked.

"To the watering hole, sir. I promised to meet Amani there and I'm late." Uru responded.

"Is that so?" Heshima asked.

"Yes, see you later Uncle Heshima." Uru said.

Uru began to run off, but something suddenly held her back, making her trip. She looked to see her uncle had grabbed onto her tail.

"Hold up their little lady, I can't let you walk yourself all the way to the watering hole. It's the dry season, you know it makes all animals go crazy and your father and mother would have my hide if they find out I let you go out there alone and something bad where to happen to you." Heshima claimed.

"Will you walk me there than?" Heshima asked.

"I would, but I know someone who is better suited for that job, especially if it's Amani you've gotta meet." Heshima said.

Uru's uncle got up and climbed up Pride Rock. Within a minute, he came back down with a young teenage male lion, Ahadi. Ahadi had dark golden fur, a cream colored underbelly, red eyes, black rimmed ears, pointy fur tufts on his cheeks and on his chin that looked like some sorta goatee, two small tare marks on his right ear, and his black mane had not fully grown in yet, only reach from his head to the base of his neck, beginning to brush his shoulders, and starting to grow on his chest. Eight months ago, when Uru was six months old, she was playing around with the pride's other cubs under the watchful eye of the pride's cub sitter lioness. The cub sitter's sister had come by and from what Uru could remember, had offered to take over after saying her sister should join the hunting party that day since she was a better hunter and it was the dry season, so the hunting party would need all the help they could get.

She hadn't been paying much attention to that conversation though, because while everyone else was distracted, something in the nearby tall grass had caught Uru's attention. She had gone to investigate, but had found nothing. She was about to go back until she heard a low snicker, which caused her to turn and see a grey and black blur. Uru had continued to investigate despite her instincts telling her to alert the cub sitter. Every time she had investigated where she'd heard the snicker and seen the grey and black blur, it would appear in another area.

Determined to solve that mystery, Uru kept investigating until the snickers and blurs led her out of the grass and far from the safety of the cub sitter. She was eventually led to a border of the Pride Lands and knowing that her parents had told her never to cross or go anywhere near the border, decided not to investigate any further. She had turned around to go back, but soon found herself surrounded by at least a dozen hyenas who weren't part of the Pride Lands' hyena clan. Uru had realized that she'd been deliberately tricked and that mysterious snicker and blur was a hyena. She had tried to run, but was too surround.

She even tried to scream for anybody around to help her, but a hyena tackled and covered her mouth before she could. They group of hyenas were about to eat her until they were suddenly attacked by Ahadi. He wasn't even two and a half yet, but he was able to hold the small clan off fairly well until the cub sitter, Uru's father, mother, and uncle along with a few other lionesses arrived and chased off the rest of the hyenas. Ahadi was taken back to Pride Rock where his wounds from the fight were treated to as Uru had explained what happened. He was thanked and offered a place among the pride if he wished.

Ahadi was reluctant to accept at first only willing to stay until he got back on his feet. He developed a close friendship with Uru, which was the deciding factor that made him stay. The young lion had grown to enjoy the Pride Lands, except for one part of it, the fact that they had a hyena clan living among them. Nobody knew why since Ahadi didn't talk about it, but he had a deep disliking for hyenas and barely hid it. He was better at keeping his cool when he was in King Mohatu and King Juli's presence when stating his disgust for hyenas, but still barely.

He showed no respect for the current hyena matriarch and chief due to their disrespect for King Mohatu, who Ahadi had grown to greatly respect. He even didn't like Uru's hyena friend, Amani, which she didn't get since Amani was probably the nicest animal in the Pride Lands. As Heshima and Ahadi came down to Uru, she could see that Ahadi had an annoyed look on his face, and it wasn't because he was woken up before he was ready.

"Your uncle said I should take you to the watering hole where Amani is waiting for you." Ahadi said, looking down at her.

"Yes, he did." Uru confirmed.

Ahadi just gave a sigh of annoyance, which caused Heshima to give the teenage lion a swift clout on his ears. Ahadi gave a small grunt before looking at Heshima.

"Quit your bellyaching and get her to the watering hole." Heshima said harshly.

"Yes, Uncle Heshima." Ahadi sarcastically replied. "After you princess."

"Alright, let's go!" Uru shouted with excitement before running off.

Ahadi was about to go after her until Heshima grabbed him by the forearm.

"Now listen here Ahadi. You don't like hyenas for some reason, I get that, but Amani is a Uru's friend and he's a good kid. So, if I hear from Uru that you snapped at that kid for 'spooking' you again, you and I are gonna have a nice long chat." Heshima warned.

"Understood Heshima." Ahadi replied.

"Good, now go after her and get some social exercise with Amani, it'll be good for ya'." Heshima said.

Ahadi just sprinted after Uru, not looking forward to his 'social exercise.'

* * *

Earlier that day, right when the black sky started to brighten up, a young hyena was waking up before anyone else. Young Amani, son of Matriarch Mary and Chief Cletus of the hyenas was waking up as early as he possibly could. He and his best friend, Princess Uru had planned to meet each other at their usual meeting spot at the watering hole today. He yawned as he woke up and tried to bring his paws to his eyes to rub them awake, but found that he couldn't move them since they were held down by something. He tried to look down to see why, but his attention was caught as he felt something press against his back.

Startled, a chill ran down his spine and into his stomach. He looked behind him to see his mother, Mary's face. He realized that she was holding onto him tightly in her forelegs. It made no sense to him since he had slept far away from her and his father in their cave. She must have grabbed him while he was asleep to hold onto him and keep him from escaping in the morning.

Amani's parents, especially his mother didn't like Uru and her family for some reason he couldn't understand. So, every time he tried to go see her, they would try to stop him from doing so, which was why Amani tried to get up every morning before they did. Amani carefully tried to move his back legs to see if they were pinned down by his mother's sleeping form. Much to his relief, they weren't. He moved them to where they were under his mother's jaw and carefully pushed up so as not to wake her.

Now that Amani was more free to move, he scooted away from his mother's paws and pushed them apart with his now free forepaws. Amani's back paws suddenly slipped from under his mother's jaws. He gasped and quickly reached out with his forepaws, which pushed against the edges of her mouth. Thankfully she didn't wake up, leaving Amani free to carefully lay her head down on the ground. Amani was now finally able to sneak past his mother and father and out the entrance of their personal den home.

Amani finally let out his held breath. He quickly walked through the hyena's territory until he got to the small stream that outlined territory's border. He used the stones to jump across and made a mad dash for the watering hole once he was back on solid ground. He made a few stops to catch his breath, but was at the watering hole just as the sun fully rose over the horizon. He laid down in an open area of the tall grass where he still had sight of the watering hole and waited for his best and only friend.

Thinking of that made Amani sigh sadly. Back in hyena territory, he didn't have any friends. There were countless dozens of other pups for him to play with and he was old enough to play with older, teenage hyenas, but they didn't want anything to do with him. It didn't matter anyway since most of them seemed to be mean spirited for some reason and Amani didn't want to hang out with that type of a crowd. There was a bunch of adult hyenas, high and low ranked that were kind to him, but they acquaintances, not friends.

There were also many other lion cubs at Pride Rock to, but just like back home, none of them liked him either, which caused Uru not to like them. So, Uru and Amani were each other's first and only real friend and always would be. A pawful of hours passed as Amani waited for Uru to arrive. Some animals had come by the watering hole to drink, but Uru was nowhere to be seen and it was less than two hours away from midday. Amani was starting to get worried.

He wondered if she had slept in or if she wasn't able to meet him today for some reason. If she couldn't, usually Uru's father, her mother and her hunting party, or her uncle would have come by and told him by now. He ran a paw through the large tufts of fur that stood up on his head, a habit that he did when he was deep in thought. After a few minutes of thinking, he decided to get up and go see if she was at Pride Rock still. He got up and was about to stretch out his stiff limbs, but something suddenly pounced on him, pinning him to the ground.

His immediate reaction was to scream.

"Ahhh! Don't hurt me!" Amani begged in his high-pitched voice. "I'm son to the hyena matriarch."

Amani all of a sudden heard laughter behind him and whoever tackled him. He looked to see it was Ahadi rolling around on the ground and laughing. He than looked to see it was Uru who had tackled him.

"Ha! Got cha. Bet you never heard me coming?" Uru said.

"No, I didn't." Amani replied, shaking his head.

Uru got off Amani, letting him up to shake the dust off his grey pelt.

"Sorry I'm late, I slept in. Thankfully Cheza and me woke each other up." Uru informed Amani.

"Well, I had to carefully crawl out of my mom's paws. So, neither of us have had it easy waking up today." Amani replied.

"Well, I'm here now with Ahadi to watch over us. So, what should we do?" Uru asked.

Amani looked towards the watering hole. It was so hot out thanks to this odd dry season and he had been laying in the sun for so long while waiting for Uru and his dark grey pelt absorbing more heat due to it's dark coloration didn't help either. Swimming in the watering hole was however out of the question since they would be wasting water by doing so. Amani also worried that it might cause his parents to argue with Uru's since they would jump to conclusions and think Uru made him swim in the watering hole and call her a bad influence when she was nothing of the sort. Amani however remembered something that an elephant friend of his and Uru's had told him the other day.

"Hay, when I went home the other day, I ran into Trumpet, and he told me that he found a small pond. He was going to tell other animals, but he decided to keep it a secret until you and me got a chance to swim in it at least once." Amani said.

"Wow, really?" Uru asked, sounding excited at the chance to swim for the first time in months.

"Yeah, I, I guess." Amani said.

"Then come on you two, let's go find Trumpet to have him take us." Uru said, running off.

Ahadi began to pass by Amani to go after Uru.

"Yeah, let's go… doggy." Ahadi said as he shoved Amani with his side.

Amani lost his balance and fell to his side. He sneezed from dust getting in his nose. The young hyena shot a small glare at Ahadi before getting up and running after him an Uru.

* * *

 **And that brings us to the end of chapter 3. We get a little look into what Uru and Amani's lives are like, we learn more of Uru's family, and see that despite Amani's kind nature, Ahadi isn't exactly fond to him since he's a hyena, which I plan to hopefully explain why Ahadi doesn't like hyenas in the future of this fanfic. Now, as always for name meanings in my fanfics, Uru's uncle's name, Heshima means "honor" in Swahili according to Google translator and a definitely have some plans for him that I hope to reach in the future of this fanfic. That's it for now, until next chapter, please leave a comment in the review section and check out and review my other fanfic if you haven't already, please, good night/day, for anyone who has school coming up, enjoy the last few weeks of your summer, and God bless.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Flint that Births the Spark**

 **Hello everyone, I'm back with another chapter of the Story of our Exile. Sorry it took me so long to get to this chapter, numerous small things came between points of writing this chapter where I was planning stuff for some of my other fanfics down the road, I wrote a new one shot fanfic about a month ago, I read some other fanfics, and other things non-fanfiction related that distracted me from this, but I'm back now. I hope you all will enjoy this chapter and please don't forget to leave and review, now enjoy.**

* * *

Uru, Ahadi, and Amani were approaching their friend Trumpet's elephant herd. Uru looked back towards Amani. The young hyena was running several dozen feet behind them.

"Amani come on, we're almost to the elephant herd!" Uru shouted toward the young hyena.

Ahadi smirked back at the Amani.

"Yeah, hurry up slowpoke!" Ahadi shouted.

"Ahadi, don't be rude." Uru said.

Uru decided to stop to let Amani catch up, so she skidded to a halt, Ahadi following her example. Amani caught up with them, panting and legs shaking. He fell flat to the ground from being so out of breath.

"Uru, are we almost there yet?" Amani asked.

Uru quickly ran up the hill behind them and looked over the ridge. Sure enough, Trumpet's elephant herd was there.

"Yep, just over the ridge. Come on, let's find Trumpet." Uru said.

"Oh, I don't think I can take another step without water." Amani said.

"Okay than. Ahadi, carry Amani." Uru said, looking towards the older lion.

"What?" Ahadi exclaimed.

Ahadi sighed and gently picked Amani up and put him on his back.

"Alright, let's find this elephant friend of yours." Ahadi grumbled.

Ahadi got up on the ridge with Uru and both lions slid down the ridge's slope. Amani almost slid off of Ahadi's back, so grabbed onto his mane. Ahadi gave a small grunt of discomfort.

"Stop pulling on my mane, you leftover muncher." Ahadi said.

"Sorry." Amani simply said.

Uru and Ahadi ran through the elephant herd, looking for Trumpet. Uru returned the occasional greeting to other elephants of the heard and quickly avoided accidently getting stepped on once or twice. Ahadi however wasn't so lucky and got his tail stepped on and nearly bucked Amani off as he jumped and yowled in pain.

"Oh, sorry." the responsible elephant apologized.

"Grrr. You big, clumsy, long-nosed lump! Watch where you put those big, dumb feet of yours!" Ahadi growled before continuing to follow Uru.

Uru eventually spotted her and Amani's elephant friend, Trumpet, and ran up to him.

"Hay, Trumpet!" Uru called.

A teenaged elephant looked towards Uru and greeted her.

"Hay, Uru! How's it going?" the elephant asked, ruffling her head with his trunk.

"As far as dry season days go, not to bad." Uru replied.

Trumpet looked and saw Ahadi coming up to them to with Amani on his back.

"Is Amani okay?" Trumpet asked, concerned.

"Yeah, he just needs water." Ahadi replied.

"Yeah, and hay Trumpet," Uru said, looking around before whispering up to her elephant friend. "Amani said that the other day, you told him about a small pool of water you found that you wanted to show me and him."

"Oh yeah, I did and have been waiting to show you two." Trumpet whispered back.

"Can you take us to it?" Uru asked.

"Of course, follow me." Trumpet said.

"Oh, and one more thing Trumpet." Ahaid added in. "Can you carry this guy; I don't want to risk him pulling on my mane again."

"Hay, I was about to slip." Amani protested.

Trumpet just wrapped his trunk around Amani and put him on his back before he and Ahadi could get into some childish argument. Trumpet than led the two lions to the small pool of water that he had found. It was hidden within a small grove of trees, keeping it well hidden; and thick, dense leaves protected the watering from the scorching sun, leaving it cool.

"Finally, water." Amani sighed once he saw it.

Trumpet wrapped his trunk around Amani and threw him into the small pool of water.

"In you go!" Trumpet joyfully shouted.

Amani screamed as he flew through the air into the water. Water went up his nose and into his open mouth as he fell in. The young hyena quickly resurfaced, coughing and having some difficulties to stay afloat at first. Ahadi couldn't stop himself from laughing at Amani's misfortune. Uru and Trumpet both glared at him.

An idea suddenly came to their heads. They both grinned at each other and nodded.

"Hay Ahadi, I call this one the 'lionapult.'" Trumpet said.

Before Ahadi could respond, Trumpet grabbed him by the waist with his trunk and threw him into a further, shallower part of the pool. Ahadi laded painfully flat, but overall unhurt. This time, Uru and Trumpet laughed at Ahadi's misfortune.

"Ugh. Hyenas, princesses, elephants, and their 'lionapult.'" Ahadi groaned.

Once their laughing fit was over, Uru looked up to Trumpet.

"Alright Trumpet, now do me please." Uru asked.

Trumpet grabbed Uru with his trunk and threw her into the water like he first did with Amani.

"Alright!" Uru said as she plunged down into the water.

When she resurfaced, she looked towards Amani, who was smiling for the first time today, but only slightly.

"Thanks Trumpet, this swim is just what we needed." Amani thanked.

"It was my pleasure you guys. I should be getting back to the herd now before they start to miss me. Have fun in there." Trumpet said as he walked off.

All three waved good-bye to Trumpet before they began to decide what water game to play.

"Hay, how about we play croc attack?" Uru asked Amani.

"Sure, but who's going to be the crocodile first?" Amani asked.

"You are Amani. You suggested we get Trumpet to bring us here in the first place." Uru said.

"Oh, okay." Amani agreed.

"Yeah, you'll be the croc and I'll be a member of the legendary Lion Guard, coming in to save the day and the croc's victim." Uru said.

"Ha! And who is going to be the croc's victim?" Ahadi asked.

Uru and Amani just stared towards Ahadi.

"What are you two staring at?" Ahadi asked.

Ahadi suddenly realized what they were staring at him for; he was going to me Amani's victim.

"Typical." Ahadi sighed and whispered to himself.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the Pride Lands, King Mohatu and Prince Cheza were walking around. Mohatu had asked where Uru was, having not seen her when he got up, so his son, Cheza, and brother-in-law, Heshima had informed him of what she was up to and that Ahadi was with her. The two lions were near the watering hole, overseeing the animals there. Mohatu looked on proudly at the animals. When everyone figured out that this dry season was going to long overstay it's welcome, Mohatu had been greatly worried.

Dry seasons always caused problems with the animals, especially when it came to resources like water. When he had placed the limiting laws on how much an animal should drink, he feared that he might face resistance against it, but all animals had agreed that it had seemed fair. Because of that, the Pride Lands was prospering through their hardships. Mohatu was trying to look for Uru as he observed the animals, but couldn't see her.

"Cheza." Mohatu addressed.

"Yes father?" Cheza asked.

"I thought Heshima said that Ahadi was taking Uru to the watering hole to meet Amani, but I don't see them." Mohatu said.

"They're probably out in the savanna somewhere playing or maybe swimming in some hidden pool of water." Cheza said, a joking tone coming out at the hidden pool of water statement.

"Indeed so." Mohatu agreed with a chuckled.

Mohatu began to turn away from the watering, deciding to leave the animals to drink in peace.

"Come Cheza, let us patrol the rest of the kingdom to make sure there's no problems among the other animal herds or any invaders." Mohatu said.

Cheza turned and followed his father into the savannah to be on the lookout for any trouble that would need their attention. Finding trouble in the kingdom that needed to be solved was however hard for an animal like Mohatu though. He was getting old and he could not always know when trouble was happening and needed to be fixed. Sometimes Mohatu had the birds of the kingdom help him keep an eye out for trouble and report it to him if it needed his attention. That move is what helped him stop a fight that was happening at the watering hole a few months back.

Mary, the hyena matriarch as always, was testing the limits and hunting near the watering hole when hunting there was forbidden. She and her hunting party had killed a couple animals and would have continued if he hadn't stepped in and eventually convinced her to stop. Mohatu sighed when thinking of that. He wanted to be a good king for his kingdom and he was, but when it came to Matriarch Mary and even her mate, Chief Cletus, those two hyenas could push him to near boiling point to where he wanted to strike them for disobeying him, but he was able to restrain himself from doing so. Mohatu deeply missed Mary's parents.

They and Mohatu had been good friends when they were younger and they were wise rulers. Mohatu couldn't help but think that due to Mary's way of ruling a hyena clan and her attitude, she was slowly bringing down the clan her parents and ancestors had built. Mohatu however had hope in Uru's friendship with Mary's son Amani.

"You know son, thinking of Uru and Amani. With times like these and the current relationship between the lions and hyenas of the Pride Lands, it's a good thing that she and him are friends." Mohatu said.

"Yes father." Cheza agreed.

"You see son, the relationship between us lions and hyenas have always been complicated. We lions compete with many other predators like cheetah, leopards, and many other animals for territory and food, but hyenas have always been the ones we compete with most." Mohatu said.

"And why is that father?" Cheza asked.

"Nobody really knows." Mohatu said, shaking his head. "It's just been that way since the beginning of time, before and after lion, hyenas, and other animals abandoned the old way of things. We lions and hyenas have however grown through the hundreds, even thousands of generations, we Pride Landers most of all some would say."

"Like how our kingdom was founded. King Kwanza is given the Pride Lands and taught how to rule by the old hyena matriarch, Mambwa?" Cheza asked.

"Yes, our kingdom only exists because of the kindness a hyena showed to a lion and in doing so, you and I and the rest of our pride were born thanks to the rippling effect of Matriarch Mambwa's kindness." Mohatu stated. "So, you see son, two different creatures who are supposed to be each other's sworn enemies instead of showing hostility showed kindness to each other and created a friendship that if nurtured and guided the right way can last for far longer than just one or two lifetimes."

"Yes father, I think I understand." Cheza replied. "It's just that… what about Mary.

Mohatu sighed.

"Well you see Cheza, it's like fruit." Mohatu said.

"Fruit?" Cheza said with a laugh.

"Yes, I know it might sound silly and childlike, but sometimes silly and childlike things can have the greatest lessons of wisdom in them." Mohatu agreed. "As I was saying, those types of friendships between different animals is like a fruit. Talking to them to get to know them are the planting of the seeds and growing of the tree and fruit. The more you talk to the different species, the more it ripens until it's perfect. Sadly though, as time goes by it'll begin to rot and lose its flavor, but it is not the end. New fruit will grow and it may rot to, but it'll begin anew again and again and again and again just so long as you nurture it and guide it." Mohatu explained.

Cheza was on the ground laughing and snorting like a pig. Cheza got a hold of himself and stood up

"I'm, I'm sorry dad. I don't mean to laugh, it holds a very good point, but comparing it to fruit is just so hilarious." Cheza said, holding his chest.

"It's no harm son. I laughed the same way as you did when my father told me, who did the same when his father told him, and his father before him. I think he mentioned that it was something Matriarch Mambwa told King Kwanza." Mohatu said, laughing himself.

"Yes father, I see now. Matriarch Mary and Chief Cletus are the fruit at its rotten stage, but Uru and Amani's friendship is the fruit about to grow back." Cheza said.

"Yes, they are." Mohatu agreed.

Father and son continued to move on. They came to the top of a hill and saw the hunting party, led by Queen Juli not too far off. They were coming on a wildebeest herd. There were two groups of three on the left and right to surround the wildebeest while Queen Juli brought up the rear with a group of four lionesses, herself included. There was however one other lioness among them.

In the way back of the group, a few paces away from them was a lioness. She was older than Cheza, but younger than all the huntresses. Mohatu looked to his son as he noticed him eyeing the lioness in the back of the hunting group.

"Give the hunting group a couple minutes before going down to greet her." Mohatu suggested.

Cheza just nodded in understanding. Within a minute, the hunting party rushed the small wildebeest herd and quickly caught one as the young lioness ran along with them to observe.

"Alright, you can go to her now Cheza." Mohatu said.

Cheza quickly ran down the hill and to the hunting party. The eleven lionesses were congratulating each other on the successful hunt. They all noticed Cheza coming up to them and turned to greet him.

"Hello Prince Cheza." all the huntresses greeted

"Hello back everyone." Cheza said, returning the greeting. "That looked like a pretty smooth hunt."

"Well, with the dry season and sparse resources, it's made all animals weaker and easier to hunt." Cheza's mother pointed out.

Cheza nodded in agreement before he looked towards the youngest huntress. She had dirty blonde colored fur, her underbelly was a so light yellow that it looked white, her ears were rimmed black, and she had brown eyes. Cheza looked towards another lioness who looked exactly like her, just without the black rimmed ears.

"Sadie, do you mind if borrow Kwanba for a little while?" Cheza asked.

"Go right on, your mother, me, and the rest of the girls can take it from here." Sadie replied.

Kwanba gave Cheza a small smile before booth of them began to walk off as the hunting party dragged their kill back to Pride Rock. When they were long out of earshot, Cheza began the conversation.

"So Kwanba, how was the hunt?" Cheza asked.

"It went well. I've got my stalking, slow, quiet, steady breaths, and pouncing perfected. I've accompanied and observed the hunting parties over several dozen times. From what my and your mom says, they think I'm ready for my first solo hunt next month when I turn three."

"Wow, that's amazing Kwanba, but are you sure you want to take it next month?" Cheza asked.

"Sure, why shouldn't I?" Kwanba asked.

"It's just that the short dry season has overstayed it's welcome for months when it should have been rainy for the past couple months since it's the rainy season and next month it'll be the long dry season. That'll last for five months and it'll making hunting more hit and miserable than usual." Cheza explained. "So, wouldn't you want to wait until the next rainy season when the air will be cooler and more suitable to hunt and prey will be mor in abundance?"

"Yes, I see that Cheza, but I don't think I can wait that long. Dry season or no dry season, I'll be up to it." Kwanba said with confidence.

"Well, it's a good thing to see that this overtime dry season hasn't broken your spirit." Cheza said.

"Oh, come on, a little hot day during your first solo hunt never hurt anybody." Kwanba replied.

The two friends laughed before Cheza asked as question.

"Hay, why don't you show me a few hunting skills?" Cheza asked. "Who knows, they could come in handy one day."

"Sure, male lions don't usually hunt, but maybe we can have the pride issue you a solo hunt as well. You are the future king after all." Kwanba enthusiastically suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Cheza said.

"Alright, how about we get Uru to help us out with it to. I could help teach her to and we can all practice and learn how to hunt with a small hunting party?" Kwanba asked.

"Sure, okay. But I don't know where she is." Cheza said. "She and Ahadi went to meet Amani by the watering hole, but they weren't there when me and dad stopped by."

"Oh well, I guess that means we'll just have to practice ourselves, but we'll keep an eye out for them." Kwanba said. "Now come on, I know the perfect field to practice in."

So Kwanba led Cheza to a field with tall grass. They came across a small herd of zebras running in fright before they arrived.

"I wonder what caused them to panic and run?" Kwanba wondered out loud.

"Some other carnivore must have been hunting and either succeeded or failed in pursuit." Cheza guessed.

Kwanba continued to lead Cheza towards the field. She gave him a few pointers before she had him turn around and count to a hundred as she hid herself somewhere in the field to be hunted. When Cheza finished counting, she moved downwind so Kwanba wouldn't smell her. He soon found tracks that belonged to Kwanba and followed them. He soon found her drawing in the dry ground with a claw.

He studied everything before he pounced at her silently. He was about to successfully land on her before suddenly…

" **AHHH**! Somebody help me!" a voice cried.

Cheza and Kwanba both looked into the distance as the sound of that voice. Kwanba had moved out of the way, causing Cheza to fall down hard on his jaw.

"Who was that who screamed?" Kwanba asked.

"It sounded like a little girl's voice." Cheza said as he got back to his paws.

"Yeah, but who?" Kwanba questioned.

Cheza listened more carefully until the scream came again. He gasped when he realized who that scream belonged to.

"That's Uru!" Cheza realized.

* * *

Somewhere deep in the savannah, the hyena chief, Cletus was skulking through the savannah. After he and his mate, Matriarch Mary talked about their son, Amani this morning and decided to have another child, hopefully a daughter, to replace him as heir to the clan since they thought he was unworthy. He was currently searching for a zebra heard so he could take one back to Mary for an old hyena birth blessing ritual, which had been part of hyena culture since the first hyenas walked the earth. When a female hyena became pregnant, her mate would go on solo hunt for the type of animal his mate liked the least. The female was tasked to eat the entire animal, skin, meat, organs, bones, and all within five days and was given an hour to rest if she got to a point where she couldn't eat anymore, she was also able to sleep during the night as well, all while her mate watched over her.

Hyena society believed that if the female finished her meal within those five days, the pup weather it was female or male would be strong. If the female didn't finish, it was believed that the cub would be born weak or stillborn, radical hyena traditionalists would even kill the pup out of mercy if that happened. The ritual didn't stop there however. If the female did finish, any and all family members, close and distant relatives, would dip their paws in the still wet blood if there was any and place their paws of the female's swollen belly to represent their bonds as family and than the female's mate would lick the blood away clean from the female's belly and face. Next, the female would go on a solo hunt of her own for the animal she liked best and eat it with her mate, this meal didn't have to be eaten within a specific amount of time.

When the pup was born, both parents would cut a small wound on their chests and smear the blood on the pup's forehead like some sort of painted on crown and hold it up to the sky. Some called this old tradition gluttonous and some parts of it brutal, but it was to spiritually give the pup strength. The lions however had no such ritual, all they did was roar loudly. A similarity the lions had with the hyena tradition however was that instead of the parent's own blood they would crack open some gourd or some kind of fruit and smear its juice along the cub's head before sprinkling them with dust.

"I bet the lions who decided to do that just decided to be a bunch copycats." Cletus said to himself as he thought that.

Cletus took a moment to laugh at his own pun before continuing on his solo hunt. He soon enough found a herd of zebras. He watched for a while, waiting for one to come close enough so he could put the chomp on it. Much to Cletus' bloodthirsty excitement, what appeared to be the herd's leader was unknowingly coming his way. This was perfect for the hyena birthing ritual.

Cletus thought that with the herd's leader, there was no way that his and Mary's new pup wouldn't be born a strong and healthy girl. However, in the Pride Lands, hunting herd leaders, their heirs, pregnant mothers, and the young was strictly forbidden.

"Oh, who cares?" Cletus said to himself while sinisterly grinning from ear to ear. "I'm sure this guy has got a son to replace his stripey butt, plus me and Mary need him way more than his herd does and they'll panic and run too quickly to even know it was me. If Mohatu confronts us, we can just say it might have been some clanless hyena who happened to wander into the Pride Lands. Now, here stripey, stripey"

The zebra herd leader soon came within pouncing distance of Cletus and had it's back turned to him, which was perfect. If he landed on the zebra's rump, he'd force it to the ground, giving him more time to grab onto it's neck and snap it. Everything seemed to be going Cletus' way today. Cletus stalked a little closer before he made his pounce, paws outstretched. Cletus' hunt was about to be successful until…

"Mstari, look out behind you!" a voice shouted.

The zebra leader looked behind him and saw Cletus sailing through the air towards him. The zebra kicked up at Cletus, striking him in the chest with his hooves. Cletus was sent at least a dozen feet back while Mstari and his herd quickly panicked and began to ran as far away as they could from Cletus. Cletus was clutching his chest in pain. Miraculously nothing was broken, but it was throbbing with pain and would no doubt leave a mother of a bruise.

The sharp edges of the hoof had also broken the skin, causing some slight bleeding and there might have been some internal bleeding, but there was no way for Cletus to tell. Cletus watched as the zebras galloped as fast as they could. There was no way he was going to catch them, especially with his throbbing chest.

"Man, that was close. That hyena almost took down Mstari." the voice that warned the zebra leader said.

Cletus' ears perked up and flickered as he heard that voice; it sounded like a young female. Cletus growled as he painfully and slowly tried to stand up. He was going to make whoever that voice belonged to and whoever it sounded like they were with pay for ruining his hunt.

"Oh, he seems like he's hurt. Come, we should go help him." the same voice said.

"Are you sure that's wise. We ruined his hunt and he got hurt because of us." a new voice that sounded familiar to Cletus, said.

"He's probably not part of your clan. Maybe he just discovered the Pride Lands and doesn't know the hunting laws and it's only right to help him if he's badly hurt because of us." the first voice said.

Cletus heard the two strangers walking towards him.

"Hay mister, are you alright?" the first voice asked.

Cletus didn't respond, he just continued to try and stand up. One of the strangers tried to reach out to help him up, but he sharply turned towards them with a savage snarl on his face. One of the strangers gasped when they saw Cletus' face and it was his son Amani and lion princess, Uru.

"Da- da- dad!" Amani exclaimed fearfully.

"Amani? Princess Uru." Cletus exclaimed.

Cletus' initial surprise to have come across his son and the lion princess subsided, replaced with his previous anger at his ruined hunt.

"You ruined my hunt you two tail biters!" Cletus angrily growled.

Uru and Amani fearfully backed up as Cletus advanced on them while snarling.

"Do you two realize what you did?" Cletus growled.

"Dad, we're sorry we ruined your hunt, but you were about to take out the herd's leader." Amani tried to reason.

"Yeah, and there are other herds to hunt. Like, there's an impala herd just over the next ridge." Uru explained.

"Impala's won't do me any good!" Cletus snapped.

"W- why?" Uru asked.

"Because this hunt ain't no normal hunt!" Cletus said.

"Not a normal hunt, but what's the difference? Hunting is hunting." Uru said.

"This is a ceremonial hyena hunt that's part of the hyena birth blessing ritual!" Cletus said

"Hyena birth blessing ritual?" Uru questioned.

"Yes, the male hyena hunts for his mate's least favorite meat and brings it to her to eat within a certain amount of days than she goes on a hunt of her own and a few things between those so the pup is born strong." Cletus explained.

"So, wait, Amani's mom is pregnant?" Uru asked.

"No, but she will be later tonight." Cletus said.

"Why did you and mom decide to have another pup dad?" Amani asked.

Cletus turned his attention to Amani.

"Because of you." Cletus said.

"Because of me?" Amani questioned.

"Yes. Your mother and I are fed up with you never listening to us and sneaking out to meet up with this little serving wench. So, we decided to have another pup, hopefully a female, to replace you." Cletus ranted.

Uru looked towards Amani. The young hyena looked reasonably hurt by his father's rant. Amani knew he wasn't the exact child his parents wanted, but he never thought they would decide to have a pup that would replace him as heir to the clan. Cletus saw his son's hurt expression as well, but continued the rant.

"Your mother and I did the hyena birth blessing ritual before we conceived you and we won't make that same mistake again so hopefully we'll have a stronger and far more worthy heir to the clan." Cletus declared. "But thanks to you two, my perfect hunt was ruined. A herd leader was perfect for the blessing ritual, it would have assured my and Mary's success and who knows when I'll get a perfect hunt like that again."

The veins in Cletus' neck were bulging as he dug his claws into the ground and growled. Cletus glared down at the young animals and opened his mouth to further scold them for ruining his hunt when he began to focus more on Uru. An idea suddenly came to his head. The idea wasn't exactly hyena tradition, but he didn't see how it would ruin the hyena birth blessing ritual and he didn't think Mary would see it either.

"But you know, that might not be a problem anymore and do you little milk suckers wanna know why?" Cletus asked.

The two nodded nervously.

"Hyenas and lions here in the Pride Lands and in some other lands may have friendly relationships, but that doesn't look past the fact that our kinds have been natural enemies since our first ancestors." Cletus began to say, eyeing Uru. "So, why don't I just take you to Mary so she can eat you for the hyena birth blessing ritual to give our future daughter and the clan's future matriarch strength."

Uru and Amani grasped as Cletus said that.

"The blessing ritual calls for the female to eat her least favorite meat, but when it comes to lions and hyenas being natural enemies like I just explained, well, why wouldn't that work just as well, maybe ever far better." Cletus further explained.

"But, but dad, you can't do this. Uru is the princess." Amani said.

"And the second born and in any type of leadership that focuses on bloodline succession all you need is a first born. Also, she doesn't have the roar of the elders since she isn't a second daughter or son. So, that makes her unimportant really." Cletus said. "Besides, nobody needs to know about this. We can just say that she had an accident, a **BLOODY** accident. Like, she was attacked by a rogue lion, hyena, or something and that I came across the scene and tried to save you two, but I was too late to save Uru. We can inform the royal family and show a couple fake tears to make them believe us and when they bury her, I'll just dig her cold little lifeless body up and bring it to Mary so she can eat her and give strength to our newborn daughter."

Uru and Amani backed up as Cletus continued to advance on them.

"Chief Cletus please, you don't have to do this." Uru said.

"Your right, I don't have to, but I want to." Cletus replied.

"But you have no idea of knowing if your theory will work. Me and Amani can find another zebra herd for you and can even help." Uru frantically said to try and save herself.

"Sorry, but that's what you get for ruining the hyena birth blessing ritual hunt." Cletus said.

Cletus lowered himself further to the ground, ready to pounce.

"Now Uru, be a good little princess and **COME HERE**!" Cletus said as he pounced.

"Wow!" Uru and Amani shouted out of reflex as they jumped out of the way of Cletus's teeth.

Cletus quickly turned to take another bite at them, but Amani quickly threw rough, dry dirt into his father's eyes. Cletus hissed in irritation when the dirt hit his eyes. Uru and Amani quickly made a run for it into the tall grass while Cletus was distracted with trying to rub the dirt out of his eyes. The two tried to look for places to hide where Cletus wouldn't find them or at least be able to reach them.

"We gotta find somewhere to hide, like a narrow hollowed out log, between some boulders, or a mud pit that we can cover ourselves with." Amani frantically suggested.

"It's the dry season Amani. Any mud is going to be long dried up." Uru pointed out.

Amani gave a groan at that fact. Uru and Amani suddenly heard the rough pounding of paws not too far behind them.

"He's coming!" Uru fearfully shouted.

"I can't believe he would do this and that he and mom would do this whole hyena birth blessing ritual just to replace me because they don't think I'm a worthy heir to the clan." Amani said.

"Oh, come on Amani. Your parents don't think that." Uru tried to reassure her friend.

"You heard him back there, he flat out said they were doing this to replace." Amani said, sounding a little angry. "What do you call this whole situation, tough love?"

Uru tried to think of a response, but had none. She had never met them, but Uru knew about Amani's parents' general disliking of lions and him hanging out with her. Also, Uru had to admit that Amani's nervousness did cause him to crack under pressure most of the time and that was a quality not very fitting of a leader.

"You two can't outrun me!" Cletus shouted.

"He's getting closer." Amani observed. "And were in an open field. So, he's going to catch us if we don't find any other way to slow him down or if we don't find a place to hide."

Uru tried to scan the surrounding area again for anything they can use to their advantage, but the tall grass wasn't helping. Soon, Uru saw some medium sized boulders that they could use to hide. Uru pointed them out with her paw and she and Amani bounded over them and hid between them. Amani grabbed a roughly paw sized rock and threw it far in a completely separate direction. Uru kept her head down while Amani kept peeking over the rock to make sure his plan worked.

Much to his relief, he heard the shuffling of grass that was sounding closer start to sound further. Amani sighed as he sat down to relax himself.

"It looks like we fooled him." Amani said.

"Yeah, it looks like it." Uru sighed.

The two friends sat there for a moment before they began to crawl out of their hiding spot.

"This is the worst game of hide-n-seek I've ever played." Uru stated.

"Yeah, we shouldn't have gone this far into the tall grass away from the tree line." Amani agreed.

"Now come on, we gotta get back to Ahadi quickly before your dad realizes he's been duped, because I definitely don't won't to be stuck in an open savanna field running away from a bad hyena again." Uru said.

"Anyone else would be offended, but given my dad's intentions, you won't get that feeling from me." Amani said.

"Thanks." Uru said

"Yeah, now let's go. I don't want by dad to come back and do anything bad to you." Amani said.

"Yeah, neither do I, especially since Ahadi once told me that bad hyenas will ground up your bones to make bread." Uru said.

"Well actually, that would be a giant." a new voice suddenly said.

Uru and Amani's fur stood up at the sound of the new voice. They turned around and much to their shock, Cletus was standing behind them on the second boulder above. He jumped down onto the boulder they were on and advanced, eye Uru.

"Now bad hyenas; oh, they're much worse. They'll make a throw rug from your freshly, savagely, painfully ripped off pelt for the den." Cletus sadistically said.

"No." Uru horrifically replied.

"They'll squeeze the juice from your eyes and use them to make cocktails along with your fresh blood, use your skulls as a mask and to make puppet shows with." Cletus continued.

"How, how, but, where did you come from?" Uru stammered.

"You little brats should know better than to think you can trick old Cletus… but, uh, it was a nice try." Cletus said smoothly before he pounced.

Amani and Uru tried to make another run for it, but failed to do so. Amani got away, but Cletus managed to grab Uru by her tail with his teeth. Amani noticed and stopped for a split second, but continued to run. Cletus saw this and laughed through his teeth.

"Well princess, it seems your best friend for life has abandoned you to a horrible grizzly fate." Cletus said.

"Amani would never do that; he's going to find help and you know it." Uru defied.

Cletus just snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Princess, I know my son and believe me when I say he's not going anywhere to find help, he's looking for a place to hide and cry because of how much of a spineless coward he is." Cletus said.

"You're don't know that!" Uru shouted.

"I do know it! Besides, Amani knows that if he does tell anyone, he'll have the same accident your about to have and you know, maybe to make sure that he doesn't, after I take you to Mary, I'll come find him and see to it that that accident does happen." Cletus said.

Uru began to squirm and tried to claw at Cletus face.

"No, I won't let you!" Uru shouted.

"Oh, you're not going to let me." Cletus laughed. "You know princess, for a lion, you've got a lot of fight in you and I like a girl who's got some fight in her. Hmm, you know when I left Mary to go on the hyena birth blessing ritual hunt, I sent some boys to keep her company, you know what I mean? I also said I'd be giving some other girls some company, all so we can make sure we got any possible unworthy heirs to the clan out of the way, but you know, whose to say when I'm done giving those girls company and I give my dear Mary the company she deserves, what if we have another unworthy heir and we were one away form a worthy one. So, why don't I give you some company."

Uru looked and saw Cletus swerving his hips. Uru gasped, guessing what Cletus was getting at. Uru began to squirm and claws at Cletus even more, but kept missing. Cletus just kept laughing at her attempts to escape. Uru soon was able to heave herself up enough and scratch Cletus across the face.

Cletus screamed and let go of Uru. Uru quickly tried to make a run for it, but Cletus quickly reacted by stomping a paw on her tail and punching in the back of the head. Uru was dazed and her vision was blurry. She turned over and looked at Cletus growling down at her. When her vision became more focused, she saw four long slash marks across Cletus' face and he was clutching his left eye.

"You know, I've been called savage, uncivil, untrustworthy, and uncourteous all my life, but I do know how to treat a lady and in the company I was going to give you, I was going to be nice and gentle, but now…" Cletus said before taking his paw off his left eye.

Uru gasped when she saw what she had done to Cletus' left eye. A tear of blood ran from a yellow eye that was stained red on the right side of the eye; Uru must have broken a blood vessel in Cletus' eye.

"…Now, since you want to play rough and hard, fine, I'll play rough and hard as well." Cletus Said. "Now come on, let's get this over with so I can get back to Mary and we can produce a true worth heir to the clan."

Cletus quickly grabbed Uru by her tail and ran off.

" **AHHH**! Somebody help me!" Uru screamed.

* * *

 **And that is it for the third chapter everyone and as you can see again, Cletus is grade-A certified creep and someone needs to save Uru before he hurts her, so stay tuned until next chapter to find out if she is and what will happen to Cletus. All I can say, things are about to get intense between the lions and hyenas. As for names and their meanings in this chapter, Cheza's girlfriend Kwanba, her name is made from the Swahili words 'kwanza' and 'simba' so her name translates to 'first lion' and the zebra herd leader that Cletus almost killed, his name means 'stripe' in Swahili. Remember to leave a review and until next chapter please read and review my other works if you haven't already, good day/night wherever you are, enjoys your last few days of October and Happy Halloween to anybody incase your reading this during the 31st, stay safe out there if you haven't started trick or treating yet, and God bless to you all, peace.**


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